Can You Hear Me?
by Xennariel
Summary: Riza suffers massive head trauma while protecting Roy. Implied Royai.


This was a prompt drabble request for mage-warden-surana/izumiicurtis on Tumblr. Enjoy this bit of angst! I may continue this in my larger royai fic, Through Eyes of Flame, but we'll see.

 **43 - squeeze my hand if you can hear me**

There was a hostage situation in downtown East City involving a rogue alchemist and his demands for recognition and a ridiculously large amount of money. As the man in charge of East, and also the only state alchemist stationed there for the time being, Brigadier General Roy Mustang and his team had been called in to deal with it.

Roy hoped it would be an easy thing to handle, but unfortunately, as was the case with most of their mission assignments lately, things went bad pretty quickly and Roy's team and the alchemist, who brought along a few friends, were thrown headfirst into a shootout. Of course the rogue alchemist's specialty was water so Roy's flames were all but useless in the battle, though he did manage to take out a couple of the enemy gunmen before things had gotten too far out of hand.

At some point while everyone was distracted, the alchemist had disappeared and they had a hard time pinpointing his location until it was too late. The water alchemist snuck up behind them and hurled a large frozen lance at Mustang. Lucky for Roy, instead of sniping from a hidden location, Riza happened to be on the ground that day and fulfilled her job as his bodyguard. She shoved him to the ground and the ice hit her instead. It smashed into her head and sent her spiraling to the ground next to Roy.

"Captain!" Roy shouted over the gunfire.

He practically growled and turned on the water alchemist, snapping quickly. The water alchemist didn't block the attack in time and was hit with the brunt of Roy's fire blast, falling to the ground in a screech of pain. The burns wouldn't be enough to kill him, but it was enough to hurt like hell.

Roy picked Riza up off the ground in a near panic, using one hand to support her head. His glove slipped on something slick when he touched the back of her head and he pulled his hand away to see it covered in blood. Grimacing, he began shouting her rank again. Havoc and Breda, still attempting to quell the remaining shooters, also began yelling Riza's name. She wasn't responding to their shouts and remained unmoving in Roy's arms.

The day couldn't have been going any worse. Riza's head was bleeding, she wasn't responding to anything, and Roy was barely holding it together.

Finally, Roy pulled her closer and gripped her hand, leaning down to press his lips to her ear.

"Please," he muttered into her ear in a last ditch effort he hoped would get some kind of reaction out of her. "Squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

Seconds ticked by and Roy grit his teeth against the torrent of emotions that swept through him until relief flooded his system moments later as he felt Riza's hand gently tighten around his own. Her eyes remained closed, face almost calm in her apparent unconsciousness, her body unmoving other than that brief tightening of her hand on his.

"It's going to be okay," he said, still leaning in close to her, holding her tighter than before. "I've got you."

Her hand gently squeezed his again, the motion almost imperceptible that time, then she became deathly still and didn't respond to anything after that, even when the paramedics and investigations team arrived to deal with the aftermath of the shootout.

No one dared question the Flame Alchemist when he refused to release her hand until they arrived at the hospital where they needed to take her from his side to deal with her injury.

If anyone had any comments about the apparent closeness of the general and his subordinate, they kept them to themselves.

The report given to Roy on Riza's condition was that she sustained massive head trauma and it wasn't guaranteed that she would wake up.

Roy felt numb hearing that. She had just gripped his hand twice not long ago. Riza was still there, she had to be. There was no way she would remain unconscious. Dread and fear settled in the pit of his stomach and he mindlessly shuffled over to Riza's bedside, taking her hand in both of his. He ran his thumb over her knuckles and stared blankly at her still and silent form, the beeps of the life support the only sound in the room.


End file.
